Unified Support vs Individual Support Contracts
Introduction – Why This Choice Matters
Broadcom’s enterprise customers face a strategic choice: stick with individual product support contracts or move to Broadcom’s unified support.
This decision has big implications for cost, flexibility, and vendor leverage. Broadcom aggressively promotes a one-size-fits-all support bundle across its products (VMware, Symantec, CA, etc.), but that “easy” option isn’t automatically best for you.
CIOs and procurement leaders must evaluate which model aligns with their portfolio and negotiating power. The goal is not to default to Broadcom’s preference, but to select the model that provides your organization with the most value and control.
For the ultimate guide, read Negotiating Broadcom Support & Maintenance: How to Secure Better Support Terms.
What Unified Support Is (and Why Broadcom Pushes It)
Unified support is Broadcom’s umbrella support model: one contract covering all Broadcom products in your environment.
Instead of separate maintenance agreements per product, you pay a single annual fee (often tied to your total license spend across Broadcom’s software).
In theory, everything is wrapped into a single support program with a single Service Level Agreement (SLA) and a single renewal date.
Broadcom pushes unified support as a simplification measure. It’s marketed as “one contract, one invoice, one support number to call”.
From Broadcom’s perspective, unified support also secures a larger share of your wallet. With one large contract, it’s harder for you to carve out or drop individual products (since the costs are bundled).
Broadcom sales teams know that bundling can mask the pricing of each component, making you less likely to notice (or challenge) a spike in one product’s support fee.
In short, Broadcom favors unified support because it maximizes its revenue predictability and account control, under the guise of streamlining things for the customer.
What Individual Support Contracts Look Like
Individual support contracts are the traditional model most IT organizations are used to. Each software product or license has its own maintenance agreement, typically priced as a percentage of that product’s license cost.
For example, you might pay 18–20% of a product’s license price annually for support on that specific product. These contracts often align with the product’s license term and can be renewed (or not) on a per-product basis.
With individual (per-product) support, costs are transparent at the product level. You know exactly how much you spend to support VMware vs. Symantec vs. any other Broadcom-acquired tool.
It’s easier to attribute support costs to each product’s value and usage. If you decide to retire or replace a product, simply not renewing its support contract will immediately free up that budget.
However, managing multiple support agreements means multiple renewal dates and separate negotiations.
Procurement teams will need to handle the terms of each contract, and different Broadcom product divisions may have varying support policies or representatives.
In summary, individual support keeps things granular and flexible per product, at the expense of having more contracts and potentially missing out on any bundle discounts Broadcom might offer for going “all-in.”
Pros & Cons of Unified Support
Unified support offers some clear benefits in the right scenario, but also significant trade-offs. It’s critical to weigh both sides:
Pros of Unified Support:
- Single SLA and Point of Contact: You receive a single support agreement that applies to all products. This means uniform response times and escalation paths for every Broadcom product you use. There’s no confusion about which help desk to call – one support portal covers everything. This can simplify operations, especially for global enterprises that use many Broadcom solutions.
- Consolidated Vendor Management: With all support under one umbrella, you deal with a single contract and a single renewal. Vendor management is easier – a single invoice, a single Broadcom account team, and coordinated support reporting. Your procurement and legal teams negotiate once, not multiple times. Co-terming all support to a single date can save administrative effort and ensure nothing accidentally lapses.
- Volume Leverage & Possible Discounts: Unified support can leverage your total support spend for a discount. By bundling, Broadcom may offer an overall support fee that’s slightly lower than the sum of the individual contracts. For example, if the separate support contracts would sum to $1 million annually, Broadcom might propose $900k as a unified fee – effectively a 10% savings. In practice, discounts of roughly 5–15% on the combined spend may be achievable for a unified deal, depending on your product mix and negotiation. Broadcom’s logic: a bigger deal warrants a better rate (to entice you into the bundle).
- Simplified Global Support: If your organization spans regions, a unified contract can ensure consistent support coverage worldwide. Instead of juggling regional support addenda or varying levels for different products, one global agreement covers all users and sites. Broadcom can assign a dedicated support manager or team to your account, given its larger size. This “one throat to choke” can be helpful when pressing Broadcom for faster resolutions – your big contract gives you leverage.
Cons of Unified Support:
- Harder to Drop Unused Products: In a unified model, if you retire a product or stop using it, your costs don’t automatically drop. You’ve been paying one lump sum, not per product. Unless you renegotiate mid-term (which Broadcom may resist), you’ll continue to pay the full fee. For example, suppose you decommission a legacy CA tool that was part of the unified support bundle. In that case, Broadcom isn’t going to volunteer a fee reduction – you’re locked in until the contract ends or you negotiate a special removal clause. This can lead to paying for shelfware.
- Lack of Cost Transparency: A unified support contract obscures the value of each product’s support. Broadcom might tell you that your unified support covers, say, $5M worth of licenses, but it won’t break down the support as “Product X support = $Y, Product Z support = $Z.” This lack of visibility is by design. It becomes very difficult to answer internally whether a particular product’s maintenance is overpriced or if you could save by cutting something. It also hampers internal chargeback models (how do you allocate that one fee across departments using different tools?). Opaque pricing means you may overpay for some components without realizing it.
- Annual Fee Increases Regardless of Usage: Broadcom often imposes hefty renewal uplifts on unified contracts. Even if your usage remains flat (or you have dropped a product, as mentioned), the unified fee may increase at the time of renewal. For instance, Broadcom might increase the whole bundle fee by 5–10% annually “by default.” Without caps, you could see an even larger jump. In other words, you might receive a 10% bundle discount upfront but face 15% higher fees at renewal, eroding any potential savings. You must negotiate caps, or Broadcom’s pricing power over the unified contract can really bite you in subsequent years.
- All-or-Nothing Leverage: When all your support is consolidated, your negotiating leverage can weaken at renewal. Broadcom understands that you rely on that single contract for all critical support. If they propose a sharp price hike or less favorable terms, it’s tough to walk away – you’d risk support for your entire Broadcom portfolio. This “all eggs in one basket” dynamic can be a trap. By contrast, with individual contracts, you can decide to drop or switch support for one product as a negotiating tactic, without jeopardizing support for others.
Read about how to reduce costs, Reducing Support & Maintenance Costs in Broadcom Contracts.
Pros & Cons of Individual Support
Using individual, per-product support contracts gives you more control per product. However, it has its own drawbacks.
Let’s break down the advantages and disadvantages:
Pros of Individual Support:
- Granular Control and Flexibility: You decide which products to keep under support. If a tool becomes obsolete or unused (“shelfware”), you simply don’t renew that maintenance. This prevents paying for support on software you no longer need. It’s ideal if your portfolio is evolving. E.g., if you plan to phase out Symantec in favor of another security solution next year, you can drop Symantec’s support when ready, without any entanglement with other products’ contracts.
- Right-Sizing and Cost Transparency: Individual contracts enable you to right-size support levels and view costs clearly. You can choose between standard support for some products and premium 24/7 support for others, based on their criticality. Each support fee is directly tied to a specific license or subscription, allowing you to evaluate value for money at a micro level. This transparency also aids in budgeting and chargebacks, as each product or business unit can be assigned its exact support cost.
- Independent Decision Making: If one Broadcom product is underperforming or too costly, you have the freedom to negotiate or seek alternatives for that one product. For instance, if Broadcom hikes support 50% on Product A, you might negotiate harder or even consider third-party support for that product, without impacting support for Products B and C. You can also stagger contract terms if that benefits you, rather than a single renewal deadline for everything. Overall, each product stands on its own merit.
- Better Fit for Changing Portfolios: Organizations that are consolidating vendors or divesting a business unit find individual contracts safer. You might only plan to keep a product for a year or two more – having it on its own support contract means you can cleanly exit when done. There’s no need to wait for a big bundle to expire or untangle one piece from a package.
Cons of Individual Support:
- More Contracts to Manage: The administrative overhead is higher. Multiple support agreements mean multiple sets of paperwork and possibly different Broadcom account managers or support portals for each division (though Broadcom often uses one portal, the contracts might be distinct behind the scenes). Your vendor management team will be juggling renewals throughout the year unless you co-term them. Legal review and approval may be required for the terms of each separate contract.
- Potentially Higher Costs per Product: Broadcom might price single-product support less generously. No bundle discount means you could pay “full freight” on each line item. For example, Broadcom could charge 22% of the license cost for each standalone support, whereas a unified deal might effectively bring that down to ~18% overall. If you have a large number of products and keep them all separate, staying organized could mean foregoing an aggregate volume discount. Broadcom tends to reward bigger commitments, so smaller individual deals might see list-price maintenance rates.
- Inconsistent SLAs or Coverage: Each product’s support might come with different service levels or terms. Perhaps your VMware support is 24/7 because you opted for a higher tier, but your older CA mainframe tool is on business-hours support. This inconsistency can complicate your IT operations – severity one issues might be handled quickly for some products and slower for others. There’s also the possibility of siloed support experiences; you’ll deal with separate support engineers specialized in each product line. Unlike the unified model, there’s no built-in guarantee of a single, consistent escalation path.
- Lost “Big Client” Leverage: If your spend is split into many small contracts, Broadcom might not view your account as a top-tier priority. A unified support contract worth $X million gets executive attention; five separate contracts of one-fifth that value each might not. This can subtly affect how much effort Broadcom’s teams put into your success. Additionally, you’ll need to negotiate each contract’s pricing and terms separately – you can’t easily leverage the total spend in one shot. It’s doable (you can still negotiate multi-product deals while keeping contracts separate), but Broadcom’s default is to treat them individually if contracted individually.
For more insights, Ensuring High-Quality Support in Broadcom Contracts: SLA & Escalation Negotiation Tactics.
Negotiation Levers for Unified Support
If you decide to explore or accept unified support, negotiate aggressively to protect yourself. The unified model is vendor-friendly by default, but you can introduce terms to balance it out.
Key levers to pull:
- Exit Clauses for Retired Products: Ensure the right to remove products from the unified contract if you cease using them or divest that part of the business. Without this, you’re stuck paying for the full bundle even if your usage drops. Aim to include contract language that explicitly allows a pro-rated fee reduction if a product is discontinued. Example clause: “If Customer retires or no longer uses any Product covered, the parties will adjust the annual support fee proportionally to remove charges for that Product, effective from the date of retirement.” Getting an exit (termination for convenience by product) is tough, but even a negotiated partial refund or credit for dropped products is better than nothing. Make Broadcom earn your commitment by providing flexibility.
- Transparent Fee Allocation by Product: Push Broadcom to provide a breakdown of the unified support fee by product or category. They may resist, but even an internal allocation in the contract (an exhibit listing each covered product and its associated maintenance value) is valuable. This transparency ensures you know what each piece is “worth.” It helps in future negotiations – for instance, if you want to drop one component at renewal, you have a basis to say “this piece was allocated $200k of the fee, so that should come out.” Without an itemized allocation, you’re negotiating in the dark. Broadcom might claim everything is a single indivisible bundle; don’t accept that. Insist on clarity up front to avoid hidden costs per product.
- Cap Annual Increases: Never sign a unified support deal without a cap on year-over-year price increases. Broadcom’s standard approach is to significantly raise fees at renewal if left unchecked. Negotiate a clause that limits any annual increase to a reasonable figure (for example, no more than 3–5% per year, or tied to an inflation index). If it’s a multi-year contract, try to fix the fee for the term or set a fixed uplift schedule. Also, be wary of Broadcom proposing a significant first-year discount on unified support that they plan to recoup later – explicitly lock in the pricing for subsequent years. Example: “Unified support fees shall not increase by more than 4% annually during the term, and any renewal shall be capped at 5% increase over the prior term’s fees.” A cap protects you from the scenario where Broadcom lures you into unified support and then dramatically increases the cost.
- Service Level Assurances: Make sure the unified contract delivers equal or better support quality than your individual contracts did. If you’re paying more collectively, demand more. This can include a unified SLA across all products at a high support tier (e.g., all products get 24×7 critical support, 1-hour response). It can also include named support contacts or Technical Account Managers who are familiar with your whole Broadcom environment. Consider negotiating an escape hatch for poor performance – for instance, the ability to terminate or receive fee credits if Broadcom consistently misses SLA targets. Broadcom might not readily agree to such terms, but raising support quality issues can at least get you some concessions (like a dedicated support engineer or quarterly service reviews). The key message is: if Broadcom wants you on unified support, tie it to a promise of top-notch support for your whole portfolio, not average service.
Negotiation Levers for Individual Support
For organizations that stick with individual product support agreements (or a mix of them), there are still ways to optimize costs and terms.
Use these tactics when negotiating separate support contracts with Broadcom:
- Base Support on Discounted License Value: Ensure the support fees are calculated on the actual price you paid for the license, not the undiscounted list price. Broadcom (and other vendors) sometimes quote maintenance as a percentage of the list price, which can dilute your license discount. Insist in the contract that support is X% of the net license cost. For example, if you receive 30% off a software license, the support should be 30% lower as well (so 18% of the license’s net price, not the list price). Explicitly confirm this in writing. This protects you from hidden cost inflation and makes sure you truly benefit from any upfront discounts over the long term.
- Negotiate Multi-Year Rate Caps: Just because you’re going product-by-product doesn’t mean you can’t lock in protections. Push for multi-year agreements or renewal caps on critical products. If you’re renewing support for Product A, consider a 2- or 3-year commitment in exchange for a fixed price or capped annual increases. You might say, “We’ll commit to 3 years of support, but at a maximum of 3% increase per year.” Broadcom often likes multi-year commitments; leverage that to secure predictable support costs. Even if you keep contracts one per product, you can still achieve some stability by writing in limits like “Support fees for years 2 and 3 shall not exceed 105% of the prior year’s fee.” This way, Broadcom can’t single out one smaller contract for a huge jump without violating terms.
- Bundle Your Renewals (Without Bundling Contracts): A clever tactic is to synchronize and negotiate multiple support contracts together to mimic unified leverage, while keeping them legally separate. For instance, align the renewal dates of VMware, Symantec, and CA support contracts to the same month. Then, approach Broadcom to negotiate all three renewals simultaneously. You can say, “We are considering renewing all these, but need an overall discount across them to proceed.” Broadcom sees a larger deal on the table (helping you get a better rate), but you retain the flexibility to drop one if needed next cycle. Essentially, you’re bundling the negotiation event but not permanently bundling the contracts. The result can be a bundle-like discount while preserving individual contract freedom. Just be careful to maintain a clear paper trail so that each contract remains separate, so you can peel one off if it becomes strategic.
- Ensure Consistent SLAs or Address Gaps: When negotiating each support contract, review the SLA and upgrade or harmonize it where necessary. If you require a specific minimum support level (e.g., 24/7 for P1 issues) on all key products, negotiate this into each contract. Broadcom might have different standard tiers per product, but as a customer, you can request an elevated level of support for a given product if it’s mission-critical. If necessary, use the fact you’re renewing multiple products as leverage: “We’ll renew Products A, B, C, but we need product B’s support upgraded to match the 24×7 coverage of A and C.” Make Broadcom justify any differences. While this isn’t exactly a cost lever, it ensures that by choosing individual support, you’re not compromising on the quality of support. You might pay a bit more for a higher tier on one product, but it’s still often cheaper than bundling everything at the premium tier under a unified plan if you don’t need all the features at that level.
Scenario Example – VMware + Symantec Unified Contract
Scenario: Imagine an enterprise that uses both VMware (virtualization software) and Symantec (security software) products, now all under Broadcom’s umbrella.
They previously paid for support separately: $800k/ year for VMware support and $300k/ year for Symantec – totaling $1.1 million. Broadcom is strongly encouraging a unified support deal.
Broadcom’s offer: unified support covering all VMware and Symantec products for $1 million per year, flat, on a three-year term.
That’s roughly a 10% reduction versus the separate costs. It sounds attractive – one contract, some savings, one Broadcom support team. The CIO likes the idea of simplification, and Broadcom emphasizes the “seamless support experience across your infrastructure and security teams.”
Year 1: The unified support contract is signed. Initially, things are fine; the company enjoys having a single point of contact for issues. The invoice is indeed simpler. They even receive a designated Broadcom support manager for their account, as the combined deal is of high value.
Problem: Midway through Year 2, the company undergoes a strategy shift.
They decide to phase out the Symantec security software in favor of a different vendor. Under the old model, they would simply let the Symantec support contract expire, saving $300k in the next year. However, now that Symantec support is rolled into the unified fee, there’s no automatic reduction.
They approached Broadcom to remove Symantec from the deal. Broadcom’s response: the unified contract is all-or-nothing until renewal. Broadcom argues that the pricing was based on a total bundle commitment, and removing a product early isn’t in the contract terms.
The customer finds themselves in a bind – they’re paying for support on a product (Symantec) that they will not use for the remainder of the contract.
Broadcom is willing to discuss adjustments, but only if the customer agrees to extend the unified contract an additional few years (essentially re-committing the spend elsewhere).
The lack of a predefined exit clause or cost allocation means the customer has little leverage now. The promised 10% savings quickly evaporate when they realize they’re stuck funding unused software support.
At renewal time in Year 3, Broadcom proposes a 15% increase in the unified fee, now citing the increased costs of VMware support.
The customer argues they dropped Symantec usage, but Broadcom’s stance is that under unified support, it’s one pot – and VMware’s portion needed a price uplift.
Without detailed cost transparency, the customer can’t even prove how much Symantec vs. VMware was “worth” in that $1M fee. They only have Broadcom’s word that the new $1.15M/year price is fair for the remaining scope.
Outcome: This scenario taught the enterprise a valuable lesson. In hindsight, if they had stayed with individual contracts, they could have saved that $300k by not renewing Symantec support and only paying for VMware in the future. A lack of flexibility wiped out the unified deal’s initial savings. For future negotiations, they now know to demand an exit clause for retired products and an itemized fee breakdown. Alternatively, they might choose to keep contracts separate or pursue a hybrid approach to prevent such a situation from arising again.
Takeaway: Unified support can mask hidden costs per product and make it hard to disentangle services. If you go unified, negotiate safeguards (or accept the risk).
If your environment is likely to change, unified support without exit rights can become a costly trap, even with any upfront discount.
Decision Framework for Enterprises
Every enterprise’s context is different. To decide between unified vs. individual support, consider these guiding scenarios:
- Broad Portfolio & Steady State: If you utilize a broad range of Broadcom products that are all mission-critical and plan to maintain them in the long term, unified support becomes appealing. A stable, extensive portfolio means you value simplicity and can leverage volume to secure discounts. In this case, the administrative ease and single SLA may outweigh the loss of granularity. For example, a global company running 10 Broadcom software tools across the business, with no plans to drop any, might lean on unified support management to streamline support.
- Few Products or Pending Changes: If you rely on only one or a handful of Broadcom products, or if you foresee significant changes (such as consolidation, migration, or divestment) in your software lineup, consider individual support. A small portfolio won’t get much benefit from bundling, and if there’s a chance you might drop or replace a product, you want the freedom to do so without penalty. For instance, an organization using just VMware and eyeing a move to cloud alternatives in two years should avoid locking into a unified contract that extends beyond that timeline.
- Hybrid Approach – Core vs. Legacy: Some enterprises choose a hybrid support strategy. This means unified support for the core, long-term products, and separate support for peripheral or legacy systems. You might roll up all your modern, widely used Broadcom products into one contract (to receive a discount and consistent support), but exclude older tools that are being phased out. Those you keep on individual (maybe annual) support contracts so you can terminate them easily when ready. This hybrid model can deliver many of the unified support’s benefits while limiting its downsides to only the portion of the portfolio you’re confident about. Example: Unified support for all VMware and security products that are the future, but a couple of CA mainframe tools nearing end-of-life are kept separate.
Ultimately, assess portfolio size and stability. Unified support shines when there’s breadth and stability; individual support shines when agility and precision are needed.
Don’t forget to factor in your internal operational capacity too – can your team handle multiple contract renewals, or is a single contract preferable given resource constraints?
Checklist Before Signing
Before you sign any Broadcom support contract – unified or individual – run through this checklist to ensure you’ve made a conscious, informed choice:
- ✅ Portfolio Inventory & Stability: What is the size and makeup of your Broadcom product portfolio? Is it likely to remain steady for the next few years, or are you planning to retire or introduce new products? A stable, extensive portfolio favors considering unified support, whereas a lean or changing portfolio suggests caution.
- ✅ Future Roadmap for Each Product: Do you anticipate dropping any product or transitioning to a different solution soon? If yes, how will a unified contract accommodate that (if at all)? It may be safer to keep support separate for any product with an uncertain future to avoid paying for something you won’t use.
- ✅ Global Support Needs: Does your enterprise require global 24/7 coverage and unified escalation? If having one support framework worldwide is a priority (for instance, to support follow-the-sun operations), unified support can meet that need. If each product is used by distinct teams or regions independently, separate contracts might not be a big issue.
- ✅ Internal Vendor Management Bandwidth: Can your procurement and vendor management team handle multiple Broadcom contract renewals and negotiations? If not, are you willing to invest the time to avoid vendor lock-in? Sometimes, resource constraints prompt companies to enter into unified deals for convenience – but be aware of the long-term costs. Ensure convenience is worth any premium or risk.
- ✅ Negotiated Protections: If you’re leaning toward unified support, have you secured key protections (exit clauses, price caps, transparency)? What specific language is in the contract about dropping products or capping increases? Never assume Broadcom will “do the right thing” later – get it in writing now. If such protections are absent and Broadcom refuses to include them, that’s a red flag that unified support could become a financial albatross.
- ✅ Cost Comparison: Have you done a side-by-side cost comparison of unified vs. individual support over the term? Model the scenarios, including potential increases and dropped products. Sometimes the unified deal’s first-year price looks good, but over 3–5 years, the individual route might save more when you factor in flexibility. Present these findings to your CIO/CFO to make a data-driven decision.
- ✅ Example Contract Language Prepared: Go into negotiations with example clauses or terms you want. For unified support, this may include language on fee adjustments in the event of usage changes. For individuals, perhaps a clause ensuring that any future support offering changes (such as Broadcom altering support tiers) won’t leave you forced into a higher-cost option mid-term. Knowing what to ask for, specifically, will speed up the negotiation and demonstrate to Broadcom that you are a savvy customer.
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